games

Eventually, console and mobile gaming won’t be separate entities. They’ll all be one thing. It’s inevitable as manufacturers pack more power and technology into smaller devices. Smartphones now can handle games on par with PlayStation 2-level visuals. Games like Shadowgun are proof enough of that. With that in mind, how would a console launching 10 years from now look like?

It may resemble the unu, a powerful tablet that runs on the Android OS and can dock to a television set so it can act like a console. It’s the brainchild of Sunflex Europe, a longtime manufacturer of video game accessories. It’s a system that has its roots in gaming, but Nicki Repenning, vice president of business development, says the tablet target audience lies beyond that demographic.

“We want to make it an entertainment hub for the whole household,” he said.

The developers behind Zombie Smash never intended to go into video games. Back in 2008, Matthias Hoechsmann was a German researcher working at a lab in UC Santa Cruz. He was studying extremophiles, remarkable organisms that are capable of living in inhospitable environments such as acidic lakes and hydrothermal vents.

But then the iPhone came out and it turned the lives of Hoechsmann and his brother upside down. Avid gamers since they were children, the two saw an opportunity in the smartphone, and the two quit their respective jobs and founded a studio called Gamedoctors. Together they published the aforementioned title, and it was an immediate hit, topping the iTunes Store charts on every continent.

With 25 titles at launch, the PlayStation Vita boasts one of the most impressive lineups in recent memory. It’s a good mix of games with several genres represented, but looking deeper, you can narrow down that list.

Forget about retreads such as Asphalt Injection andDungeon Hunter Alliance. They’re ports of iPhone games that cost $6.99 on Apple’s device but skyrocket to $39.99 on the Vita. That’s not a great value. Other titles such asUltimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 are good but better on the console. I’m a person who can’t play fighting games without an arcade stick. Finally, some releases were never that great to begin with and they happen to be on the system. Case in point: Ben 10 Galactic Racing.

That winnows the group to about a dozen great titles. These are the cream of a solid but verdant crop. A lot of them showcase the Vita’s promise but they overuse some of the system’s features to the point that they get rather gimmicky. The best ones offer a more restrained approach; nevertheless, some of them still made it to my list for other reasons as you’ll see:

Last year, Scribblenauts took everyone by surprise. It went in to E3 as a game with a funny name and it left the show with a staggering amount of buzz. Is there another game like that this year? I doubt it. There’s just going to be too much major news coming out with Project Natal, PlayStation Move and the Nintendo 3DS and big-budget titles such as Gears of War 3, The Last Guardianand the new Zelda sucking up the rest of the oxygen in the room. With everything going on, it could be easy for great game to get lost in the shuffle. With that in mind, here are a couple of promising titles that seem to be flying under the radar:

Enslaved: Odyssey to the West — Ninja Theory’s latest piqued my interest just with its visual style. It’s post-apocalyptic without the dreary brown and biege that seems to dominate developers’ imaginations. Instead of Mad Max, we have something more fantastic. The developer of Heavenly Sword imagines the end of civilization 150 years from now. It’s a place where you can see the remains in the deteriorating skeletons of buildings and bridges. Amid this environment, players will focus on two characters Monkey and Trip who’ll have to help each other out as they try to flee robots that appear to be enslaving humans. Aside from Ninja Theory, there’s a lot of great talent behind the game including Alex Garland, the author of The Beach and scriptwriter for 28 Days Later. I really believe in Garland’s work, and with all due respect to Remedy’s Alan Wake and Red Dead Redemption, this could be one of the best-written games of the year.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective — OK, there’s a trend here. This title is Phoenix Wright creator Shu Takumi’s new game. From what I’ve read, players will essentially be a spirit who can possess objects. The goal of the game is to prevent the deaths of certain people by inhabiting these objects and steer them away from danger. Other than that, I don’t know much else about the game except that it’ll probably be text-heavy and have some of the quirky humor that Takumi’s Phoenix Wright trilogy had.

Red Faction: Armageddon, Devil’s Third and Homefront — I’m comboing these two games for one reason. They’re all being published by THQ. It’s a surprising development for a publisher mostly known for its Pixar games, Saints Row franchise, WWE and UFC fighters. Now with these upcoming games, it seems as though the company is bent on making a name for itself beyond those core games. With Armageddon, THQ is making a big push toward transmedia gaming, where different parts of the universe will appear in different media. Devil’s Third is Tomonobu Itagaki’s new title after he left Team Ninja and started Valhalla Games. Suffice to say, the game looks very slick and very violent. Lastly, Homefront seems to be THQ’s uber shooter based on a scary history where North Korea attacks the United States. The developer behind it, Kaos Studios, did Frontlines: Fuel of War, which means that it’s mostly likely going to be heavy on the multiplayer. But overall, these games have the potential to surprise a lot of folks and maybe turn a few heads at the show.

El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron — This game came up at the last minute, and the reason I’ve been high on it is because of the people involved, the content and the art style. First off, game director Sawaki Takeyasu and producer Masato Kimura are leading the team. They’ve worked on a few Clover titles such as Okami and Viewtiful Joe. Second, it’s about a fight between heaven and hell, which makes sense if you’ve played Bayonetta (a game by one of the main Clover minds Hideki Kamiya). Lastly, here’s what the game looks like. It’s very stylized but it looks gorgeous.

If you’re still looking for an iPad and you’re having a tough time finding one, I recommend heading to the nearest Best Buy. That’s where I was Saturday morning. I didn’t preorder the device nor did I sign up for a reservation online. I was one of those people who decided at the last minute that I desperately needed one. So instead of waiting hours for a chance to buy it, I just walked into the store and picked the device up. I was amazed at how easy it was. Maybe it was a good thing that the Best Buy angle wasn’t publicized as much.

The one thing I do advise is to ignore Best Buy’s offer of Black Tie protection. It’s ridiculously overpriced at $200 and up. Don’t believe what the sales associates there tell you. You can purchase the much better AppleCare plan at the Apple Store for $99. You’ll thank me for this later.

And while you’re there, you should purchase the Apple’s official iPad case. It’s similar to those sleeves for the Kindle. The case protects the surface of the tablet and doubles as a stand for easy typing and photo display (if you choose to use your iPad as picture frame when docked).

As for the device itself, I played a few of ngmoco’s free games on the tablet. GodFinger plays like Pocket God, with more of a purpose. Meanwhile, We Rule reminds of one of those Zynga games such as Farmville or Cafe World. They’re both interesting takes on the free-to-play genre. The way ngmoco makes money is by enticing players to buy items that extend or benefit their play experience.

When it comes iPhone games, it’s hit and miss when they’re emulated on the iPad. Titles such as The Simpsons Arcade look and play beautifully on the stretched screen. Other games such as Gangstar: West Coast Hustle don’t look nearly as good. They end up looking pixelated. Interestingly enough, because of the size of the screen, I ended up playing the games less with my thumbs and more with my index fingers. It just feels more comfortable that way.

I’ll offer more insight on games later next week as I get more accustomed to the iPad and download more games.

As of this moment, the iPhone 3G S is out on the shelves. To mark JesusPhone Day (which almost feels like Christmas), I’m offering a list of my five favorite games that I’ve played since the iPhone OS 2.0 update and the lovely, lovely App Store made its debut.

Pocket God: This is the cheapest title on the list, but don’t let the small price tag fool you. Pocket God offers hours of entertainment. The premise of the game isn’t complicated. You lord of these little islanders and come up with entertaining ways to destroy them. You can toss them into the ocean. You can change the weather and draw lightning to strike them. You can even shake the iPhone and cause and earthquake. What’s great is that the creators, Bolt Creative, constantly update the game, so there’s always a reason to come back to it every once in a while. Price: 99 cents

Sims 3: You’d expect that cramming down an enormous game into a little cell phone would cause problems. We’ve all seen it before. Something’s lost in the translation from big screen to the mobile one. With the Sims 3, that doesn’t happen — much. The game brings players a streamlined version of what they’d expect on the PC. Players can still customize their character (somewhat) and move around and buy items in their homes (No, home building here unfortunately.) They can even get jobs and walk around town. Although they can’t record video of their Sims and the title doesn’t nearly have as many options, the Sims 3 manages to bring the essence of the franchise to the iPhone right down to the quirky music. And yes, it’s addictive enough that you’ll play until your iPhone battery runs dry. Price: $9.99

Siberian Strike: Anyone familiar with the arcade classic 1942 should love this Gameloft title. It’s a top-down arcade shoot-’em up that’s perfectly playable on the iPhone’s touch screen. The controls are simple. Players don’t have to press a fire button; the plane fires automatically. They’ll touch the screen and maneuver around bullets and other projectiles as they take down the Russian army. There’s even some 3D trench levels strewn through the game. It’s like having an old-school arcade cabinet in your pocket. Price: 99 cents.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour: Although this is one of the most expensive titles on the list, it is one of the best made and fully featured games out there. Tiger Woods includes four real-life golfers such as Vijay Singh and Natalie Gulbis and features seven courses such as Pebble Beach and St. Andrews. The controls smartly uses the touch screen in a way that measure speed and precision based on how you slide your fingers across the screen. The game even includes the occasional audio commentary. It almost feels like you’re playing this golfing title on the console. Price: $6.99

Oregon Trail: More than 30 years after the original, this classic education game finally gets an update. Again, like other titles, Oregon Trail offers a streamlined version of the original. In this case, players will spend less time figuring out how many axles and extra wheels they need and more time venturing into the unknown American wilderness circa 1848. The addition of minigames makes this game more entertaining and hopefully the new iPhone 3G S speed will make the loading times more bearable. Price: $4.99

Speaking of competition in the industry, just when I thought I saw everything with DJ Hero. Here comes another title to go head to head with Activision’s latest music game.

Scratch: The Ultimate DJ has its own turntables called the Scratch Deck. This one looks a little more realistic and based off a design by Numark Industries, which is known for its expertise.

Here’s the most important bits of the press release:

Scratch Deck combines two essential elements of the DJ and hip-hop experience – a free-spinning, touch sensitive turntable with a crossfader and 5 Akai Pro MPC-style drum pads. The turntable allows players to add their own style and manipulate the songs in real time, while the MPC-style drum pads give players the opportunity to perform and customize tracks by triggering samples using the very same pads that are the cornerstone of professional hip-hop beat production. Samples can either be pre-loaded into the game using 60 unique battle records that will ship with the software, or players can record and upload their own samples using a compatible USB microphone.

Between DJ Hero and Scratch, It sounds like there’s going to be a lot of spinning this fall and holiday season.

It may sound crazy but it seems like it may have some potential. They’ve partnered with Namco Bandai and SCEA (Sony’s software division) so that gives them some publishing clout, and while their cable network has a reputation as a nerdier version of the Discovery channel they do have some stuff conducive to gaming…to those of you who watched Lockdown, don’t try to tell me you didn’t imagine it as a strategy game, we all did.

Time magazine asks the question: “Can the iPhone rule gaming?” And we have an answer. No, it can’t. Well, more specifically, it can’t right now, not with the games that are out there.

The Time articles goes into how the iPhone is affecting the mobile games business. It wonders whether the Jesus Phone can beat out the Nintendo DS, the No. 1 hand-held on the market.

The system does have a few things going for it. All the games are downloadable content. It’s cheap to distribute. It has a touch-screen (part of what made the Nintendo DS so phenomenal) and an accelerometer, one of the parts that make up the Wii remote. There’s a camera. It has GPS. But unfortunately, no game really incorporates all those strengths.

So what’s more impressive than this Peggle shot that smashed the 13.5 million record? Well, it comes pretty close, but PopCap Games announced that it will be bringing one of the best casual games in years to the Nintendo DS this winter.

It’s one of three titles coming to the hand-held. The other two are Adventures The Forgotten Ruins and Mystery P.I.- Portrait of a
Thief. Both of these titles are based on those hidden image games you’d find in Highlights magazine. It’s pretty self-explanatory.

As for the cost, Peggle will sell for $29.95, which is a little pricey. The other two titles will go for $19.95 and will be released this winter.